Thing 1

Though I feel very confident about a number of the Things, there are a few I do look forward to spending a little more time on than I have been able to this past year since graduating. Several months ago, I downloaded Evernote, but never really got around to using it. I had a similar experience with Zotero so I look forward to those weeks.

This experience will also “force” me to be more aware of my blogging. I had abandoned this blog because I find Twitter and Tumblr more useful at this place in my personal and professional life. I have less time to spend on book reviews and blog posts or I am choosing to spend more time on my personal research project and website as well as more “micro-blogging.”

Returning for 23 Things for Professional Development

I have somewhat abandoned this blog (for several reasons) but I am returning to it as I participate in 23 Things for Professional Development. This 23 Things is aimed at library and information professionals. More info can be found on the CPD23 blog.

23 Things is running from June 2o to early October 2011.

More coming shortly.

Please see my blog on tumblr

I will continue to write reviews and annotations on a fairly regular basis but they will be mixed with other postings to my tumblr blog Overdue and twitter:

http://audrabirek.tumblr.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/AudraBirek

I do not find this blogging platform to be as flexible as tumblr and do not plan to update this site in the future.

Black Dog of Fat

Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir: An American Son Uncovers his Armenian Past by Peter Balakian. Tenth Anniversary paperback edition first published 2009 by Basic Books.

New York Times Notable Book, Winner of the Pen/Albrand Award

From 1914-23, the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of modern Turkey, carried out the systematic state-organized policy of physical annihilation of its indigenous Greek and Armenian civilian populations. I was aware of some of the history of the Armenian genocide from my familiarity of the Greek genocide as a descendant of Asia Minor (on my maternal grandmother’s side)—but this does not make a book like Black Dog of Fate easy to get through and I struggled to finish it. It is not only about the atrocities committed at the hands of the Turkish government-- but it is also a beautiful book about discovering one’s heritage. Not an easy read but an important one.

Freaky Dancin': Me and the Mondays

by Bez. Pan Books, 1998c., 335 pages. ISBN 978-0-330-48197-7

A story of a young man who spends his days in constant pursuit of drugs could turn out to be a sad and cautionary tale. This book by Bez, about his young adult years and his (in)famous time as the maraca-shaking/”freak dancin’” member of the Manchester band Happy Mondays, turns out to be a very funny and honest memoir. Though much of Bez’s antics are self-destructive, it is also obvious that he quite enjoyed himself. He is unapologetic but he seems to hide nothing. Freaky Dancin’ is a must for those readers interested in the Happy Mondays and notorious nightlife scene of Manchester in the late 80s and early 90s.

Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age

by Clay Shirky. The Penguin Press (2010), 242 pages.

Before we had access to the Internet and the many social media applications so many of us use today, we spent quite a bit of our free time in the solitary and consumptive activity of watching TV. Now we may still be watching TV with some of our free time, but it is no longer a completely passive activity. People are participating in discussions online as they watch as well as using content to create new things to share with our online world. We have become participators, collaborators and producers. More often than not, we do this work for free. However, it is not just entertainment-related content we are sharing with each other. We are creating content to inform (think Wikipedia) and save lives (Ushahidi.com, reporting violence to Kenyans in real time-- to name a few ways.

We (of much of the developed nations) have an excess of free time, energy and ideas and this is what Shirky refers to as “cognitive surplus.” The use of this surplus in creating content with our free time without monetary gain continues and is increasing because social media fulfills our innate desires of being members of a group and sharing with one another. Much of this book looks at what benefits to society can come from the pooling of this surplus.

Cognitive Surplus is not really a deep look at how people are using social media and online communities but rather a book of quotable observations and examples. It is a really affirming book if you are involved in social media and are optimistic about the future of the use of these tools and applications. Though Shirky sees a promising future through the use of our cognitive surplus for goodwill, there is no real direction on how we will really accomplish this. Optimism is good and these are exciting times so I do recommend this book but I do so with some reservation. I do not believe that there is too much in this book that has not already been said by Shirky and others.

Submarine

by Joe Dunthorne, c. 2008, Hamish Hamilton, 290 pages.

Fifteen year old Oliver Tate is a boy obsessed. He is equally obsessed with his parent’s failing marriage (and lack of sexual activity) and learning new words from the dictionary. Another obsession is losing his virginity—and soon. Though he finds himself entwined in a relationship with the eczematous and occasionally pyromaniacal Jordana, his precocious awkwardness eventually isolates him from her.

Oliver is at times callous and detached as he takes a clinical view of those around him. This makes him a tough character to like in those moments. Luckily there are more moments throughout the novel Submarine in which Oliver reveals the awkwardness and anxiety of adolescence allowing him to become relatable to readers. This is a very darkly funny novel.